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Who's Who - Horatio Herbert Kitchener

Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916)
was born on 24 June 1850 near Kerry in Ireland.

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Trained at the age of 18 at
the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich until 1870, Kitchener served briefly
with the French Army of the Loire before receiving a commission into the
Royal Engineers in 1871.

Following duty in Palestine
and Cyprus he was attached to the Egyptian army in 1883, at that time being
re-organised by the British army. Kitchener took part in the
unsuccessful operation to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum in 1884-85.

Appointed Governor General
of Eastern Sudan in 1886, a position he held until 1888, he helped turn back
the last Mahdist invasion of Egypt in 1889.

Made commander of the
Egyptian army in 1892, he began the reconquest of Sudan in 1896 having
re-organised the army in the interim. A series of victories
culminated in the battle of Omdurman and the reoccupation of Khartoum in
1898. Later that year he forestalled a French attempt to claim part of
Sudan; he was subsequently made governor of Sudan.

Appointed chief of staff to
Lord Roberts during the Boer War in 1900, Kitchener re-organised transport,
led an (unsuccessful) attack on Paardeberg and suppressed the Boer revolt
near Priska.

Lord Roberts returned to
England at the close of 1900, leaving Kitchener behind to mop up continued
guerrilla resistance, a task that took until 1902 and for which Kitchener
was much criticised.

Kitchener was crated
Viscount and sent to India as commander in chief of the British forces
situated there, remaining in the position until 1909, when he was made Field
Marshal.

Kitchener served as Consul
General to Egypt from 1911-14, being made an earl in 1914.

With
the outbreak of the First World War Kitchener was recalled to England and
made secretary of state for war. Almost alone among his colleagues
Kitchener foresaw a war lasting several years, rather than months, and
planned accordingly.

He vastly expanded the army from 20 to 70 divisions within
two years. The most famous recruitment poster in history depicted
Kitchener with finger outstretched: "Your country wants you!"

Kitchener effectively
oversaw war strategy for the first year and a half of the war; after the
Mons
battle in 1914 he travelled to Ypres to stiffen the weakening resolve of
Sir
John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

Unfortunately his relations
with the rest of the war cabinet were strained. Kitchener was
difficult to work with, finding it hard to develop close working
relationships with colleagues. Following an attack by
Lord
Northcliffe's newspapers in 1915 over a
shortage of shells, responsibility
for munitions was taken from him; later that same year he was stripped of
control over strategy.

Kitchener offered to resign
from the cabinet, but his overwhelming popularity in the country at large
made the government fearful of the consequences of allowing him to leave the
cabinet.

Kitchener's involvement
with the disastrous
Dardanelles campaign led to a further tarnishing of his
reputation among the cabinet.

Sent on a mission to Russia
in June 1916 to encourage continued Russian resistance to Germany,
Kitchener's ship, H.M.S. Hampshire struck a German mine off the Orkneys and
sank; Kitchener was drowned on 5 June 1916.